Garment



March 16, 1948.

W. W. ARTZT GARMENT Filed July 12, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A TT RNEV March16, 1948. w, w, ARTZT 2,437,988

GARMENT Filed July 12, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WILL/RM w. ARrzr 7 3i AATTO NEY Patented Mar. 16, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GARMENTWilliam W. Artzt, New Rochelle, N. Y., assignor, by mesne assignments,to Lisle; Mills, Inc-.,- Allentown, Pa, a corporation of PennsylvaniaApplication July 12, 1945, Serial No. 604,571

This invention relates to improvements in garments and the method ofmaking the same and particularly to garments for infants generally knownas rompers or creepers.

One of the objects of the present invention resides in a novel method ofmaking garments of the character indicated which eliminates certainsteps necessary in the prior methods of making of such garments.

Another object resides in the provision of a arment which will fit morecomfortably than garments of this character heretofore made.

Another object resides in the provision of a garment wherein the entireback" and the upper front portion are made of a single piece ofmaterial.

A further object resides in the rovision of a garment which can bereadily applied and removed from the infant.

A still further object resides in the provision of a garment which isneat when worn and which has the appearance of a separate jacket andbody.

The features of the garment of the present invention may be employed ingarments such as suits, overalls and the like for older children. Whenso employed slight modifications, as will be described in detailhereinafter, may be made which will result in many advantages over suchgarments as at present made. I

In garments for older children, particularly for boys who have reachedthe age where they are able, without assistance, to attend to their owntoilet, a fly is generally providedby forming a slit or opening in thefront of the garment immediately above the crotch and it is customary insuch garments to eliminate fastening means for the fly. When the wearersits or spreads his legs the fly has a tendency to open and expose thechilds undergarments. In such structures also when the child desires toattend to its natural needs, thelower portion of the garment isunfastened at the waist and lowered, resulting in soiling the garment inmany instances.

In such prior structuresbecause of the necessity of dropping the rearlower portion of the garment it is necessary that the upper edge of thelower portion be removably secured to the lower edge of the waistsection, which in many instances results in exposure of the childs bodyor undergarments at the waist due to separation of the sections becauseof stretching of the fabric or loss of buttons or other fastening means.

One of the objects'of the modified form of the present invention residesin the provision of a 3- Claims.

garment of the character indicated wherein all of the aforerecitedobjections are eliminated.

Another object provided by the modified form resides in. the provision".of a. fly construction in the crotch of the garment whichwillremainclosed regardless of the-activity of the wearer and which readily can beopened by the boy to attend to either of his natural needs, and whereinthe rear.

materialfrom which blank-s for garments of the present invention-may becut;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a blank from which the entire back panel andthe upper portion of the garment is formed;

Fig. 3'is a plan viewof the completed garment;

Fig. 4 is a plan. View of the lower front portion of the garment;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the back panel of a modified form of garment;

Fig. 6 isa front view of the upper sections thereof;

Fig. 7 is an inside view of the lower front section. thereof Fig. 8 isa. rear view of the completed garment;

Fig. 9 is a front view of the completed garment;

Fig. 10 is a sectional view on line Hi -Ill of Fig. 9; and

Fig. 11 is a sectional view on line Ii-il of Fig- 8.

Referring to the drawings in detail and first of 'alrto the'rormshown inFigs. 1 to 4 inclusive. In 1 there is illustrated a flat tubular pieceof fabric Ill, which preferably is knitted mate rial, from whichgarments of the present invention are to be: made;

Identical patterns it and M are laid on the fabric in interlockingrelation in the manner illustrated whereby to occupy the least space inthe fabric to avoid waste on the same piece of fabric immediately belowthe patterns i2 and It a third pattern it" is laid.

The tubular fabric is then out along the inside edges l8 and 20ofthepatterns l2 and. M respectively and around the entire edge of thepattern IS. The fabric lying under the straight edges 22 and 24, ofcourse, are not cut as these edges are in alignment with the side foldsof the fabric.

After cutting the fabric in the manner just described the section underthe pattern l2 when opened along the side fold of the fabric will be inthe form of a blank 26 shown in Fig. 2 from which a garment is to bemade. The fabric under the pattern 44 will form a similar blank foranother garment. The fabric under the pattern l6 will form two blanks,such as blank 28 shown in Fig. 4 which forms the lower front Piece of agarment, as will be described in detail hereinafter. The blank 26, aswill be seen from Fig. 2 is provided with a neck opening 32 and a pairof upper wings 34 each having a straight edge 36. A lower pair of wings38 are also provided. The wings of each pair extend substantiallyradially of the neck opening.

In the blank 26 when the upper portion, that is, the portion lying abovethe longitudinal center line of each of the lower wings 38, is foldedalong the dotted lines 40, the lower wings 38 form the shoulders andsleeves of the garment and the upper wings 34 each form a half of thefront waist portion while the out out 30 forms the neck opening asillustrated in Fig. 3.

It will be noted that the edges v36 of the projecting wings 34 will liein overlapping alignment on the front of the garment. One of these edgesis provided with button holes 44 and the other with buttons lit wherebyto close the front of the vest. It will be noted also that the neckopening is formed so that when the blank is folded in the mannerdescribed the front of the neck opening will be lower than the back ofthe opening, which is desired in garments of this character. This isbecause the fold lines 40 meet the neck opening at points below thecenter line, which is illustrated in Fig- 2 is substantially at the lineof bisectors of each of the lower quarters of the substantial circlewhich defines the neck opening.

After folding the blank 26 in the manner described the blank 28 is laidonthe lower portion of the blank 26 and stitched thereto along the sides48 as indicated by dot and dash lines'5fl. The upper portion of thefront of the garment is completed by stitching along the dot and dashlines 52, which stitching forms the closure seam for the sleeves and thesides of the garment.

The lower front section 28, before the same is stitched in place, mayhave its upper edge folded over on the dotted line 56 whereby to form afalse belt 58, as shown in Fig. 3.

Snap fasteners 60 or other fastening means are secured to the crotch ofthe garment whereby the lower portion may be readily opened tofacilitate removal and renewal of diapers. As will be noted when thefasteners 60 are opened the actual opening provided includes both legopenings which provide a full and ample opening for folding back of thelower portion of the garment when desired.

Buttons 64 or other fastening means may be provided on or adjacent thelower edge of each of the front waist halves and buttonholes providedfor these buttons in or under the false belt 58.

As will be -seen from the drawing and the foregoing description theentire back of the garment is in one piece and is free of any seams,folds or buttons whereby to provide a smooth rear or back portion forgreater comfort for the infant when lying on its back. It will also beseen that the sleeves of the garment slope downwardly because of theposition of the folds 40. This too provides for greater comfort andneater appearance of the garment than is possible with garments withstraight shoulders as made by prior methods.

The garment illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive is readily applied toan infant by merely opening the buttons 46 and 64, laying the garment ona table or bed, placing the infant in the garment feet first and thenplacing the infant's arms in the sleeves and fastening the buttons. Thegarment is removed in the same manner. This method of applying thegarment has many advantages over the former methods wherein the garmentis pulled over the head of the infant, in that when the garment is wetor damp it does not contact the head of the infant. It also has theadvantage that the garment can be applied to the infant by oneindividual without any assistance.

It is to be understood that the garment may be made without sleeves, ifso desired, in which case the tubular material It employed in formingthe blanks may be of smaller diameter.

Referring now to the form of garment illustrated in Figs. 5 to 11inclusive wherein a garment for an older child is illustrated, a backpanel 10 (Fig, 5) is provided in the same manner as the back panel 26 ofFigs. 1 and'2. In this form the upper front of the waist may be formedseparately as shown in Fig. 6, but it is to be understood that the backpanel and upper front of the waist may be made of a single piece offabric as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The garment of Figs. 5 to 11 inclusive comprises the single back panel10, sections 12 and 14 of the upper front waist section and a lowerfront section 16 all cut from a suitable piece of fabric. The sectionsl2, l4 and 16 are then superimposed on the back panel 10 and stitchedalong the side and top edges as indicated at 18 whereby to complete thegarment.

A false belt may be applied to the garment to give the same a decorativeeffect. In stitchin the belt in place, as will be seen from Fig. 11 thetop edge of the lower front section, the lower edge of the waistsections 12 and 14 and the lower edge of the belt section 80 are broughttogether and stitched to each other with the seam on the outside of thegarment and inside of the belt whereby to provide the greatest comfortfor the wearer and whereby the seam thus formed is invisible.

A combination crotch and fly portion of the garment is provided bystitching a strip of material 82, having a plurality of female membersof a fastening means, along the inside wall of the rear panel whicheventually will correspond to one seam of the inner central section ofthe crotch and leg portions, as shown in Fig. 5, and a complementarystrip of material 84, having a corresponding number of male members of afastening means, is attached along the inside wall of the front sectionwhich, will eventually correspond to the over-lapping seam of the innercentral portion of the leg portions. The fastening means may be theconventional snap fasteners or may be a sliding fastener generally knownas zippers or any other convenient fastening means may be employed.

The strips 82 and 84 are brought into overlapping relation and thefastening means secured in the manner shown in Fig. 10.

As will be seen from Fig. 8 the combined crotch and fly are in the formof an inverted U and have the appearance of a garment with a pair oflegs without any fly being visible.

It will also be seen from the foregoing that the fly can readily beopened to attend to the natural needs of the wearer and if desired whenthe fly is opened the entire lower back section can be raised whereby toattend to the further natural needs of the wearer.

The entire garment of Figs. 5 to ll inclusive preferably is made ofknitted material with the ribs running longitudinally of the garment toprovide the necessary transverse elasticity. The false belt likewisepreferably is of the same material whereby to provide for transversestretching or elasticity at the waist of the garment.

The garment of Figs. 5 to 11 inclusive is applied to the wearer bymerely opening the buttons at the Waist and stepping into the lowersection.

The garments of the present invention has been found to possess greatercomfort and greater convenience to the wearer.

In addition to the objects and advantages of the garments of the presentinvention, as hereinbefore set forth, the method of making thesegarments has other advantages in the economy in the saving of material,the cutting of blanks for a plurality of garments substantiallysimultaneously and other obvious advantages.

While I have illustrated and described preferred steps of my improvedmethod of making garments of the character indicated and preferred formsof my improved garment, I do not wish to be limited to these specificsteps or forms, as obviously various changes and modifications may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of myinvention.

What I claim is:

1. A garment of the class described comprising a single piece of fabricincluding an entire rear panel and front halves of a waist portion, saidpanel having a neck opening and being folded upon itself along lineswhich meet the neck opening at points below the center line thereofwhereby said halves will lie on the upper portion of the panel with theadjacent edges in aligned overlapping relation, a lower front portionpermanently secured adjacent its side edges to the edges of the lowerportion of the panel, said lower front portion having its upper edgefolded over upon itself to simulate a front belt portion.

2. A garment of the class described comprising a single piece of fabricincluding an entire rear body panel extending from leg openings upwardlyto a neck opening and shoulders, over the shoulders and downwardly infront of the waist line in the form of split front Waist halves, eachhaving their edges parallel and provided with complementary fasteningmeans, said piece having laterally extendin portions folded with theshoulders to provide front and rear sleeve portions seamed at the bottomand having a seamless top edge sloping downwardly and outwardly on astraight line from the neck opening centrally atop of the shoulders tothe ends of the sleeves, said piece being curved upwardly and outwardlyfrom its bottom edge adjacent its 1011- gitudinal center line, and alower half front body piece being curved upwardly and outwardly fromadjacent its longitudinal center line, and being secured to the edges ofthe rear lower portion of the first piece from points adjacent the upperterminal of the curved portions to the waist line, and complementaryseparable fastening means carried by the lower edges of the piecesintermediate the curved portions whereby to provide separable legopenings having curved lower edges formed by said curved portions.

3. The method of making a garment of the class described which methodcomprises forming a blank of fabric having a substantially circularneckopening and a pair of upper and a pair of lower wings extendingsubstantially radially of the neck opening, folding the fabric uponitself along diagonal lines substantially central of the lower pair ofwings and extending from opposite points below the transverse centerline of the neck opening, whereby to bring the outer edges of the upperpair of wings into aligned overlapping relation to form separable splitsections of the front of the Waist of the garment and whereby the lowerpair of wings will form sleeve portions and the major portion of theblank will form the back of the garment, stitching the adjacentlongitudinal edges of the sleeve portions to complete a pair of sleeves,applying a lower front section to the blank, and stitching the sideedges of the waist sections and the lower front section to the back, andforming a pair of separable leg openings by securing complementaryfastening means to the lower edges of the blank and the lower frontsection adjacent the center thereof.

WILLIAM W. ARTZT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,475,892 Sohn Nov. 27, 19231,797,604 Burgdorfer Mar. 24, 1931 1,812,791 Katz June 30, 19312,008,773 Shapiro July 23, 1935 2,132,466 Goldberg Oct. 11, 19382,393,259 Northrup Jan. 22, 1946

